it's a real honor for me to be here with general joseph votel. i think many of you are familiar with his great work around the country and the world in the time he has been in uniform. he was commissioned in 1980 after growing up in st. paul, minnesota, went to west point, spent a lot of time in various ranger units and activities early in his career and thereafter, also a lot of time with the 82nd airborne division, time in europe, including in sarajevo, bosnia, so some backdrop in the kinds of mission that is perhaps were slightly fore shadowed by that particular set of operations in the balkans that we have now seen him preoccupied by in the 21st century with a lot of activity in iraq, afghanistan and elsewhere. he was the combatant commander at special operations command, is now the combatant commander at central command, it's a real privilege. general votel, as you surely know, you are widely respected and admired and, therefore, we're looking to you for a lot of good wisdom in this key transition moment not only in the middle east but in ou

it's a real honor to be with general joseph votel, give a brief introduction. i think many are familiar with great work around the country and world when he was in uniform he was commissioned in 1980 after growing up in st. paul, minnesota, went to west point. spent a lot of time in various ranger units and activities early in his career and thereafter. also a lot of time with the 82nd airborne division, time in europe in sarajevo, bosnia, backdrop and kinds of missions slightly foreshadowed by that particular set of operations in the balkans we've seen him be preoccupied by in the 21st century with a lot of activity in iraq, afghanistan. elsewhere combatant commander special operations command, now combatant kplander at central command. a real privilege. general votel, as you surely know, you are widely respected and admired and therefore we're looking to you for a lot of good wisdom in this key transition moment, not only in the middle east but our own country. i think many of you know general votel has countries to worry about in central command. that's a sm

i would ask you to kindly take your seats for our next conversations with general joseph votel. by event will be moderated michael. a minuteive folks just to take your seats. a couple of courtesy reminders. first, kindly make sure that your phones are sent -- set to silent. do not necessarily have to turn your phone off. you can join the conversation on twitter. tv,ou are watching on please feel free to visit our website. toe again, it is a pleasure welcome today general votel to discuss the crisis' in the middel east. that m --

conversations with general joseph votel. by event will be moderated michael. a minuteive folks just to take your seats. a couple of courtesy reminders. first, kindly make sure that your phones are sent -- set to silent. do not necessarily have to turn your phone off. you can join the conversation on twitter. tv,ou are watching on please feel free to visit our website. toe again, it is a pleasure welcome today general votel to discuss the crisis' in the middel east. east. -- middle we are honored to have michael here moderating. he is the author of too many books to list. michael, thank you for moderating the conversation today. i would ask you to please join me in welcoming general votel. [applause] thank you, chris. good afternoon, everyone. i will give a brief introduction . i believe many of you are familiar with his great work around the world. in 1980.mmissioned he growth in st. paul, minnesota. he went to west point. he went that he spent a lot of time in various ranger activities earlier in his career and thereafter. he also spent a lot of time in europ

visit ncicap.org] announcer: now, joseph votel gave an update on military operations to defeat isis in remarks before the foreign-policy initiative a long event. conflicts included the conflict in human, the iran nuclear deal, and relations with egypt and turkey. >> good afternoon. my name is chris griffin. i ask that you kindly return to your seats so that we can begin our next conversation featuring general joseph votel, who is the commander of the united states central command, and moderated by michael o'hanlon of the brookings institution. give folks just a minute to take your seats. a couple of courtesy reminders before you get there, once again, make sure your phones are set to sign on. however, do not necessarily turn your phones off. feel free to join the conversation on twitter at hashtag #fpiforum. if you are watching on tv, feel free to visit our website, ignpolicyi.org. once again, it is a pleasure to welcome general votel to the discussion. we have an excellent moderator in michael o'hanlon, the codirector of 21st century security intelligence. he is the author of too any

central command chief general joseph hotel -- votel discusses the u.s.ight against isis. >> now, house armed service mac thornberry on military readiness. in the national defense authorization act. for fiscal year 2017. from the foreign-policy initiative forum, this is about 40 minutes. >> thank you, chris. this is great for me to be here with you and chairman thornberry. we will have a conversation that will touch on a number of topics and we will take some questions. i want to talk first about readiness. before i ask you the first question, we are going to talk about current readiness of the military. i think we can safely say that the report is not very good at all. a lot of things you could say in the last few years are responsible for that. a lot of agencies. but not the house armed services committee. we are grateful for your leadership and the consistent way you have stood up for american security. welcome. mr. thornberry: i appreciate it. mr. talent: i thought i would give you an opportunity to talk about the personal tour you have engaged in rec

cardin and senator ben sasse and general joseph hotel -- votel. >> c-span's washington journal, live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. coming up thursday morning, texas democratic congressman discusses the leadership election, and the future of the affordable care act in the trump administration and the congress. billll also talk about his to abolish the electoral college. charlie todd's about the elections and the legislative agenda. he will also discuss the trump candidate and leadership takes. and we will talk about policy funding for hiv and aids, and where ending the epidemic stands today. watch at 7:00 a.m. eastern thursday morning. join the discussion. >> follow the transition of government on c-span as donald trump becomes the 45th president of the united states and republicans maintain control of the u.s. house and senate. we will take you to key events as they happen, without interruption. watch live on c-span. watch on-demand that www.c-span.org or listen on our free c-span radio app. >> thank you. welcome to congress. >> now, house armed service mac t

that you kindly return to your seats so that we can begin our next conversation featuring general joseph votel, who is the commander of the united states central command, and moderated by michael o'hanlon of the brookings institution. we will give folks just a minute to take your seats. a couple of courtesy reminders before you get there, once again, make sure your phones are set to sign on. however, do not necessarily turn your phones off. feel free to join the conversation on twitter at hashtag #fpiforum. if you are watching on tv, feel free to visit our website, www.foreignpolicyi.org. once again, it is a pleasure to welcome general votel to the discussion. we have an excellent moderator in michael o'hanlon, the codirector of 21st century security intelligence. he is the author f too any books to list in the time we have available, but ost recently would want to emphasize the $650 billion bargain, the case for moderate bargain, the case for moderate growth in america's defense budgeth i , whicghly recommend it. mike, thank you for moderating today, and i ask you to join me in welcoming gene